magistrates, and though he were celebrated for his zeal for the commonwealth. Indeed, in virtue of this law men of distinction, while delivering speeches from the rostra hostile to the senate and pleasing to the people, and enjoying great popularity on that account, have been dragged down from thence and carried away by their fathers to undergo such punishment as these thought fit; and while they were being led away through the Forum, none present, neither consul, tribune, nor the very populace, which was flattered by them and thought all power inferior to its own, could rescue them. I forbear to mention how many brave men, urged by their valour and zeal to perform some noble deed that their fathers had not ordered, have been put to death by those very fathers, as is related of Manlius Torquatus¹ and many others. But concerning them I shall speak in the proper place.

XXVII. And not even at this point did the Roman lawgiver stop in giving the father power over the son, but he even allowed him to sell his son, without concerning himself whether this permission might be regarded as cruel and harsher than was compatible with natural affection. And,—a thing which anyone who has been educated in the lax manners of the Greeks may wonder at above all things and